DIVINE ACTIVITIES IN SUPPORT OF THE TESTIMONY (6)
[p. 83] DIVINE ACTIVITIES IN SUPPORT OF THE TESTIMONY (6)
JT The question arises as to the use of the word ‘assemblies’, whether it is really in this chapter, although it is said in verse 31, “The assemblies then throughout the whole of Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and were increased through the comfort of the Holy Spirit”. The word ‘assemblies’ is questionable, as the footnote would show. This would mean that the idea of local assemblies has to be postponed to chapter 14. The assembly was viewed, if the note is correct, as a whole, that is in a metropolitan sense, until chapter 14, when we have the expression “each assembly”, elders being chosen in each assembly. This may seem to be unimportant, but it is important, because it helps us as to the early formation of the assembly. I mention all this as perhaps some may not have noticed it, but it is worth noticing now in view of the instruction needed in the book of Acts and the formation of the assembly, for the idea of local assemblies is not properly reached until chapter 14:23, where we read, “And having chosen them elders in each assembly, having prayed with fastings, they committed them to the Lord Acts 14:23”.
ENJ Do you think that the assembly was already functioning in a locality, in Damascus, inasmuch as the Lord is able to say to Paul that he should go into the city and it would be told him what he must do?
JT There are other instances, too, no doubt, so that we might say the assembly was functioning in a local sense; but the note would indicate the [p. 84] contrary, and the choosing of elders in each assembly, according to chapter 14, confirms it.
BGW Would that word ‘assembly’ in chapter 9:31, if correct there, be confined to the regions mentioned?
JT We would have to generalise it, and regard it as viewed as a whole. The first reference to eldership and to local assemblies appears to be in chapter 14:23, whereas 1 Corinthians 1:1 says, “Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God’s will, and Sosthenes the brother, to the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. There the saints gathered together in Corinth, although local, are called “the assembly of God”; “with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours 1 Corinthians 1:2”. This is where we get the formal reference to assemblies, local assemblies. The chapter we have read does refer to the local idea, if we are to take the authorised version as it is, but the note to which I have referred in verse 31 says, “or assembly”, that is to say “the assembly then throughout the whole of Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace”. The note is a critical one, and I believe we are to consider it, so as to see how the truth developed.
PAH Does that bring out the importance of what was committed to Paul? We need the truth as committed to him, so that the truth of the assembly should be developed in our localities.
JT That is what I would say. The saints had to wait until Paul was brought in for the thought of local assemblies to develop, and so you have the remarkable statement about “Paul and his company” in chapter 13 which brings out the place that Paul immediately had; “And having sailed from Paphos, Paul and his company came to Perga of Pamphylia Acts 13:13”. That is the first reference we have to any brother, even an apostle, having a company, and bears out what we have been saying as to the local assembly.
[p. 85] I hope the brethren will not think I am diverting them, but I think it is important we should all know the setting of these scriptures, and the place the assembly has in view of local formation.
ENJ What have you in mind as to elders?
JT Well; elders are never viewed in the singular. We never hear of an elder over one assembly. It is in the plural, and that would show that what is common in the denominations is not to be trusted; that is, a man assuming he has a flock and that he is the bishop of it, because one would mean that the elder is just a bishop in the sense of a clergyman, whereas he is only one of others. The local assemblies are to be ruled by elders. The governing is in their hands, and hence we have the instruction as to eldership in Paul’s epistles to Titus and Timothy.
PRP Is the appointment of the seven deacons earlier a special matter, I mean in relation to the metropolitan position?
JT That is the idea exactly. These seven were working together. They were not segregated into so many bishops of assemblies.
AM We have to give due place to the idea of choice or election even today. I was thinking that Saul is spoken of as an elect vessel. Does that not involve the idea of divine choice?
JT Yes, it does, but it is only said of one. Paul has that place, and only Paul. Not that there is not the idea of election, because there is. In the sixth chapter, as we had it, “Look out therefore, brethren, from among yourselves Acts 6:3”. That was the choice.
ENJ In a locality there would be those that would qualify to take up such a service, and the brethren would recognise the qualifications.
JT We need to recognise that there is such as that, that there is local government, as it were, and that the whole assembly is not governed from one [p. 86] centre, such as Rome claims. Rome claims the metropolitan idea, which is false. The idea is local assemblies — plural.
ENJ It is not only what Christendom is in danger of, but we have to watch the same principle in our midst, lest anyone come forward and rule over the city.
JT That is so, and the local assembly is in the place, and if anything arises the whole assembly has to be listened to, and so Matthew says, “If also he will not listen to the assembly Matthew 18:17”. The local assembly has a voice, and that is what Matthew deals with.
CW Would 1 Corinthians 14:29 help, “And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge”?
JT Very good. That is a question of what we call prophetic ministry. It is very important, because it gives room for the Spirit as the prophets may speak, two or three.
DHB Would the understanding of eldership tend to more mutuality with us?
JT It does, of course, but there must be authority connected with the idea, and so we have in 1 Timothy, and in Titus, a description of an elder, and how he functions, and that authority goes with him. At the same time room should be made for the expression of local feeling in matters, so that the brethren may have liberty and not be wholly dominated by any group.
JM So in chapter 15:22 it says, “Then it seemed good to the apostles and to the elders, with the whole assembly, to send chosen men from among them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch Acts 15:22”. I was thinking of what you said, elders are always in the plural, and the whole assembly is brought in as well.
JT Yes, but the local assemblies are not touched in chapter 15. What is in mind there is what was current at Jerusalem; it was a question of the [p. 87] solution of a difficulty and the effects, so that the matter is not settled in the local assembly; it was settled in a metropolitan sense, that is, the whole assembly is in mind in the settlement. And that is why I felt free to bring that fact forward, because I think it would help us all in our consideration of the book of Acts, and the important matters that are current amongst us now.
PRP Do you think in a city like this we are in danger of exerting undue influence over smaller meetings in the country?
JT There would be that danger unless the local position is fully owned. There would always be that danger of a central position governing a whole province, or even a whole country.
PAH So that the very smallest meeting is to be moving in the light of Paul’s ministry.
JT Just so, and therefore the decision reached in Brisbane will hold universally with us. We have to recognise that there is a local responsibility in Brisbane, and that Sydney cannot exert authority over it. It has its own place in relation to the Lord. It is responsible to Him.
CTMcC Is your thought in the coming in of Saul in his conversion, that these things are to be opened up for us, things potentially are there in the conversion of Saul?
JT The Lord had that in mind when He chose Saul. He needed Saul. “This man is an elect vessel to me”. We see from Paul’s epistles, and the book of the Acts, how true it is that everything converges on Paul’s ministry; as to the final result we have to go to Paul. None of the twelve had such a place as he had in the Lord’s mind.
PAH He is really the one who appointed elders in every place, and he also sets forth the qualifications for elderhood.
JT Just so. It seems to me, that the very [p. 88] things we are saying now ought to be noted, that we are in a local assembly now, and brethren in the other part of the hall ought to have just the same liberty as brothers on the platform. The Spirit of God, or the Lord Himself, intended that the metropolitan idea should obtain at the beginning, but when Paul came in, it was clear that Paul would be the former of assemblies, as we may see in the book of Ecclesiastes. The word preacher there, is ‘former of assemblies’, not simply a preacher, but one who forms assemblies. I am endeavouring to link up what has been said with the brethren in the body of the hall, so that the principle of the local assembly may be present and active.
CTMcC Do you connect the words, “light from heaven”, with the local assembly? Paul was converted in that way. Do you think that light from heaven is available locally?
JT That is just the idea. The second chapter has something that bears on the idea of a voice from heaven. On the day of Pentecost there came suddenly a sound out of heaven, not light, but sound out of heaven, and then the light from heaven later, so that the idea is that everything comes out of heaven. At the same time there is that which is on earth, and that is our point tonight, what is on earth; that there is the local assembly, and the total of all would be the assembly, and that is what the Lord is going to translate. He is going to translate the whole o the assembly into heaven, not local assemblies.
PAH The truth as ministered would have a universal bearing. The working out of it would be locally, and where there are any peculiar difficulties such as we are seeking to get help on at the present moment, the working out of the matter is local.
JT That is right. The working out of the matter must be local. Each assembly must work out things by itself. That is really what is meant by the first [p. 89] and second letters to Corinth, as to working out the truth of the local assembly.
DHB When the elders are appointed in chapter 14, it is said, “having chosen them elders in each assembly, having prayed with fastings Acts 14:23”. Is that where everyone comes into it?
JT Quite so. Fasting is denying what might hinder the work of the Spirit, denying ourselves things which may be right in themselves, but apt to clog the working of the Spirit; hence fasting is added to prayer.
AM Do you think the bringing in of Damascus here is significant? It seems to have great significance, and then also the brethren that were there.
JT Quite so. The Lord makes His own selection. He waits until Paul reaches gentile territory, because He is going to show the latitude He has to work out His thoughts, proceeding into gentile territory; He is not confining Himself to Jewish territory.
CGMcC Although the local assemblies have their own peculiar exercises, and must work them out for themselves, there is a sense, is there not, in which the whole assembly feels the pressure of things? The Lord said, “Why persecutest thou me?” — referring to the pressure on the whole assembly.
JT And then, of course, the interdependence of the local assemblies is assured. Paul says, “Thus I ordain in all the assemblies” (1 Corinthians 7:17); that is, similarity is to regulate all the assemblies universally; and they are to be governed by the same principles and ways. This would shut out denominationalism as in the Church of England, and the Presbyterian Church, because they do not represent the assembly. No national church can represent the assembly. The assembly is out of heaven. It will come out of heaven presently. When the time comes for the Lord to take it on, it is seen coming down from God out of heaven. In the meantime we see the [p. 90] assembly in its local setting now. In the beginning of Revelation the Lord is seen first in the midst of the assemblies; the word is plural there.
PRP Would you say that at the end of the book of Revelation, we have the pearls referred to as being the completed article, so to speak, from each place?
JT Very good. The preciousness of the thing, what the assembly is in that sense. How precious it is!
PRP And then various stones, too, referred to as each produced in its own peculiar setting.
JT Very good. Such expressions as that direct us to the preciousness of the formation, to what the saints are, so that we should not have common thoughts about them. Each gate was one pearl for instance, showing how precious even the gates are.
ENJ What bearing would what you have brought before us have upon this matter of associations and the attack of the enemy on the assembly?
JT Well, I think it is well to have the whole matter before us, as it has been, but now the question is as to association. We have to see how Saul the persecutor was taken up by the Lord. These things that we are having to deal with imply persecution. Perhaps a brother or a sister is in a certain office, and he or she is not free to become a member of any trade association, and he is discharged, or she is discharged. Well, he or she is persecuted. That is what it means, and the persecution is absolutely wrong. There is no ground for the discharge, there is no righteous ground for it.
ENJ What occurred here in this ninth chapter when Paul was converted seems to frustrate the enemy’s attack for the time being. “The assemblies then ... had peace”.
JT Just so, and God may come in now in these serious matters that have been occupying the brethren [p. 91] in these countries, and He may do something to baffle the enemy, to negate all he is endeavouring to do, and to give the saints rest in their employments. The Lord took notice of what Saul was doing, and He determined that He would undo what he was doing, but He would undo it in a gracious way. He would convert Saul, and He did. Let us then examine the character of the conversion, what it really was in Saul’s case. We are told, “Saul rose up from the earth, and his eyes being opened he saw no one. But leading him by the hand they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without seeing, and neither ate nor drank”. Well, that was a remarkable thing. Did ever a man have such a conversion? I doubt it, such a conversion as is described here.
PRP Referring back a little to what you were saying as to such persecution being entirely wrong, we have been a little inclined to take account of what has been said by the authorities and to bow to that, whilst recognising in a way that it was not right. Would you help us on that point?
JT Well, I think we are suffering the loss of a good conscience if we proceed on those lines. Paul says everything he did was with a good conscience. How can we preserve our consciences if we do not do what is right?
PRP So that irrespective of who says it, the thing is right or wrong before God, and we have to view it only from that angle.
JT That is what I would say, exactly. The brethren have to be considered, and I am sure they are considered; brethren in other countries are considering what we have to go through down here; but at the same time there must be suffering. If we are to get the truth and work it out we must suffer. “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not [p. 92] only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake”, (Philippians 1:29).
PRP The Lord showed him how much he should suffer.
JT That is exactly the word. “I will shew him”, He said.
CTMcC Do you view suffering as not just something that may come, but as something which, as a matter of principle, every Christian rightly has to go through?
JT That is what it says in Philippians. It is given to us “in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” Philippians 1:29; and so Paul says, “I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly”, (Colossians 1:24).
ENJ Paul may be regarded as the spoil of this great exercise, this great persecution which came upon the saints; the enemy was frustrated, but then there was spoil in the matter, and this wonderful vessel was secured.
J.T. What a spoil it was!
RGW Do you regard Saul’s conversion as an intervention?
JT Yes, that is the word. The Lord intervened to protect His people; they were as a tender plant, you might say, in the midst of a cruel world, and the Lord intervened to protect them, and take away the man that was persecuting them. When Saul said, “What shall I do, Lord?” the Lord said, “Rise up, and go to Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which it is appointed thee to do”. So that he has to learn from the humble saints of Damascus, and this is what each one has to do, learn from the saints.
AM It is remarkable how quickly Saul comes under the idea of the Lord’s authority, is it not?
JT Quite so. The Lord waited till he got on [p. 93] to Syrian territory, and then He tells him, so to speak. It says, “he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?” He at once calls Him Lord. When he left Jerusalem with letters from the high priest he would not call Him Lord, but would be respectful to the high priest.
WJB Would this help us as to the character of preaching? Saul, we may say, was converted from heaven. The preaching should have a heavenly character about it, it comes from heaven.
JT So the next thing we get is, “And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he saw, and rising up was baptised; and, having received food, got strength”. “And straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God. And all who heard were astonished and said, Is not this he who destroyed in Jerusalem those who called on this name, and here was come for this purpose, that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?” So that he immediately preached that He is the Son of God. We have no word that he was told to do that, but he did it. It says, “straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God”. Well that is the preaching. Is that what you have in mind?
WJB Yes; I was thinking of the voice from heaven. What struck him down was the voice from heaven, and the gospel preaching as going out should have that character, as from heaven.
JT That is true, and of course he was not taken up to preach. His commission begins later. When he is taken up in chapter 13, he goes out with Barnabas, and there you get his preaching, the sort of thing they were preaching, he and Barnabas.
ENJ This would seem to indicate that what was in Damascus was the true work of God, inasmuch as he received food and got strength, and then he begins [p. 94] to preach that Jesus is the Son of God, indicating that the disciples there were able to help this new convert.
JT They did not attempt to help him as to his preaching. It is a question of what he did. I am sure that the brother whom the Lord sent to serve Paul did not tell him to preach the Son of God. I am certain he did not do that.
ATG Would it help us to see that this conflict revolves around the Person? The name is referred to several times. It is not a matter of how it affects us, but it is the name.
JT It is for Him, and so the Lord said He would show him. “This man is an elect vessel to me, to bear my name before both nations and kings and the sons of Israel: for I will shew to him how much he must suffer for my name”. That is the position now: suffering for the name.
PAH Then as facing persecution, is it not comforting and supporting to realise how the Lord is intimately with us, as He expressed to Paul, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”? The Lord is with us in it.
JT Just so, but see how virulent the enemy was in this instrument of his, that is, Saul of Tarsus, and now how he completely turns round to be a follower of Jesus, and to make everything of the name of Jesus; as he says himself later, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, ... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10,11)”.
DHB Is the preaching of the Son of God an evidence that the power of God is in expression now, Saul having been converted?
JT Just so, and that the testimony was taking new form, really beginning and taking on a new character, it was the preaching of the Son of God. Peter did not preach the Son of God in the second [p. 95] chapter. It is now a question of the preaching of the Son of God, and so Paul says, explaining his position and commission, “God, who ... was pleased to reveal his Son in me (Galatians 1:15,16)”. That is not said of Peter. Peter confessed the Lord, as the Father had revealed to Peter, that Christ was the Son of the living God. Peter’s confession was, “Thou art ... the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16); but to Paul it is that God revealed His Son in him, not to him, that he might announce Him as glad tidings among the nations; so that the preaching had taken on a new character in Paul’s ministry.
ENJ You are suggesting that this preaching of the Son of God is not what he secured from the brethren in Damascus, but something fresh the Lord had given him, and it would be the forerunner of much the Lord would give him?
JT So that he took on something of the spirit and character of Stephen and Philip, who acted of themselves in preaching. Philip went down to Samaria, and preached the Christ; he did not preach the Son of God, but preached the Christ.
AM Would there be something for the affections about that, some special touch of affection in relation to the Son of God?
JT I think that is right. “The Son of God”, Paul says, “who loved me, and gave himself for me”, (Galatians 2:20). It is a beautiful touch as to the place the Lord should have with us.
AM I was thinking of the peculiar impression that Paul seems to have received of the person of Jesus, who He was, and he seems to impart that in all his gospel.
JT Yes, he says,”That I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations (Galatians 1:16)”.
PAH Would that really bring us into victory according to John’s epistle, “Who is he that gets [p. 96] the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5)?
JT How fully John was with Paul in his ministry. How John, Peter, and Paul were one really in what they preached, although Paul excelled and led in what was to be preached. He really began a new order of things in preaching and took on the whole thought.
JM The place of Paul’s conversion was on the Damascus road. He says in Galatians that he did not confer with flesh and blood, nor went he up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him. All this suggests the unique character of Paul’s preaching.
JT Yes, and it is of supreme importance to suffer for the name. We ought to be stimulated.
RGW I would like to ask if in the way the Lord dealt with Saul, the leader of the opposition, by converting him, we have a present moral application of Psalm 2:4 “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision”?
JT Very good, and it is the Son of God there, because the Son is mentioned. That came up in the conflict we had fifteen or twenty years ago, and greatly helped us as to sonship in the book of Psalms. The section we have read says that Paul was to suffer. “But Saul increased the more in power, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this is the Christ. Now when many days were fulfilled, the Jews consulted together to kill him”. This shows the terrible nature of the opposition. “But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched also the gates both day and night, that they might kill him; but the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket”. Paul has this experience of being lowered in a basket, but he accepted it; and then it says, “And having arrived at Jerusalem he essayed to [p. 97] join himself to the disciples, and all were afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and related to them how he had seen the Lord in the way”. We get now the true character of Barnabas, who was surnamed by the apostles, Son of consolation. How he shines here! It says, “Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and related to them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus”. So that Barnabas is taken on, and God is using him to bring out Paul, to bring him into the testimony. And so it goes on, “he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem, and speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and discussed with the Hellenists; but they sought to kill him”, showing the murderous character of the opposition to Christ and His people. “And the brethren knowing it, brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus”. And then the verse we have already commented on: “The assemblies then throughout the whole of Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and were increased through the comfort of the Holy Spirit” — a wonderful finish to this great episode, the conversion of Saul and his being brought into the testimony, awaiting the full time of it which we get in his epistles.
JAA The local assembly at Jerusalem took on all that was related to Paul, did they not? He was with them coming in and going out, and they would take on all the feelings of the sufferings that Paul had, the local assembly would become affected by that.
JT That is so, and then Barnabas was there, the son of consolation, to comfort the saints. We ought to look for that [p. 98] in our companies.
ENJ The Holy Spirit is mentioned here in this great work of comforting the brethren. The Lord spoke of Him in that way, another Comforter.
JT Yes, how John fits in with Paul’s ministry in that sense, because in John 14 the Lord speaks of another Comforter the Father would send, and we see how the idea of comfort is also worked out in Paul’s ministry.